Legislation I am co-sponsoring to ensure that public employees who commit job-related felonies are stripped of their taxpayer-funded pension was approved Tuesday by the Senate and sent to the House of Representatives for consideration.

Currently, the Public Employee Pension Forfeiture Act requires a public employee to forfeit his or her pension only for certain crimes listed in the act. In practice, this law allows public employees charged with a forfeiture crime to plead guilty to a different non-forfeiture crime in order to avoid pension forfeiture.

Senate Bill 611 would require pension forfeiture if a public employee or public official is convicted, pleads guilty, or pleads no contest to any felony offense related to his or her employment.

The measure also closes the “Mellow Loophole,” through which former State Senator Bob Mellow of Lackawanna County had his $245,000 a year pension restored despite pleading guilty and being sent to prison on federal conspiracy charges.

In addition, the legislation ensures that criminal convictions involving public officials are reported to state pension boards. Current law does not require the employee, courts, or state agencies to send copies of court records upon conviction. Instead, pension boards learn of pension forfeiture cases through agency websites and newspaper articles. Under Senate Bill 611, courts would now be required to notify state pension systems of all pension forfeiture cases.

A measure I sponsored urging counties, local police and state authorities to prepare for rollout of a new statewide safety radio system was unanimously adopted by the Senate this week.

Senate Resolution 237 urges counties and local officials to work with the Pennsylvania State Police and the Office of Public Safety Radio to explore and execute shared services arrangements to enable operation of the new Pennsylvania Statewide Radio Network (P-25 PA-STARNet).

PA-STARNet is the commonwealth’s statewide wireless voice and data network for public safety and emergency response communications. It will provide interoperability and enables first responders to communicate without boundaries. This statewide emergency radio communications system has been in the making for decades, and is years behind schedule. It is absolutely critical for public safety that all of the parties are prepared to work together when the system is deployed.”

The statewide rollout of the system began in northwestern Pennsylvania early last year and is set to be completed in 2021.

Last session, the Senate adopted my measure urging the governor and the executive branch to develop a plan to implement a solution for the statewide emergency radio communications system.

Prior to the passage of this resolution, Pennsylvania taxpayers had invested more than $750 million into PA-STARNet, yet it remained unreliable, often preventing agents in the field from doing their job safely and effectively. In 2014, it was proven to be a liability in the search for Eric Frein, who ambushed and murdered one State Trooper and gravely injured another.

Since the adoption of Senate Resolution 325, Pennsylvania has switched to a new system vendor and the State Police have made great progress towards implementing the system.

It is important that we notify counties, local law enforcement, and public safety and emergency services providers of the benefits of this new system and urge them to work with the PSP to ensure interoperability and cost-savings. If we do not take this important step of the passage of this resolution, it is possible that some counties will move ahead with deployment of their own, non-integrated system, which will ultimately be an increased cost to taxpayers.

Senate Approves Proposal to Improve Special Emergency Response Times

Off-duty police officers who serve on Special Emergency Response Teams (SERTs) could respond to incidents quicker and more safely under legislation unanimously approved Tuesday by the Senate.

Senate Bill 1015 would allow SERT officers to use flashing lights and sirens when using their private vehicles to respond to incidents, much like firefighters now do.

Local officials estimate that the use of lights and sirens on personal vehicles could save 10 to 15 minutes in assembling a SERT team for incidents requiring special training, such as kidnappings, barricaded gunmen and hostage negotiations.

Other Bills Approved by the Senate

Senate Resolution 32 directs the Joint State Government Commission to study the use of youth courts in Pennsylvania’s education and juvenile justice systems.

House Bill 359 addresses penalties for hunters who mistakenly kill an animal.

Senate Bill 611 amends the Public Employee Pension Forfeiture Act to require pension forfeiture if a public employee or public official is convicted, pleads guilty, or no defense to any felony offense related to his or her employment.

House Bill 653 provides for an accelerated foreclosure process for vacant and abandoned property.

Senate Bill 898 exempts municipal trucks from state bonding requirements when these vehicles are traveling in order to maintain local roads.

The Appropriations Committee approved three bills on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 955 establishes a pilot program providing grants to community colleges to partner with secondary schools to train students in fire services.

Senate Bill 780 promotes telemedicine in Pennsylvania as a way to overcome barriers to quality patient care created by distance and reduce the costs of those services.

Senate Bill 1031 requires the Department of Insurance to submit an annual report detailing its spending for third-party contractors to conduct fiscal examinations of insurance companies doing business in Pennsylvania.

Senate Resolution 104 urges the Governor to end the moratorium on non-surface disturbance natural gas drilling on state forest land.

Senate Resolution 226 requires the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to conduct an independent performance evaluation of the largest statewide environmental permitting programs administered by the Department of Environmental Protection.

House Bill 1341 amends the Bituminous Coal Mine Safety Act to allow emergency medical responders to be employed at mines.

House Bill 1486 exempts “high tunnels” from the requirements of the Storm Water Management Act.

House Bill 104 amends Title 53 to require a municipal authority to publicly discuss all acquisitions and the sale or transfer of authority-owned water and sewer infrastructure and how the acquisition or sale will benefit the authority’s existing ratepayers; and requires annual reports within 180 days of the end of an authority’s fiscal year.

Authorize local governments to implement storm water management ordinances and to assess a fee to fund the planning, management, implementation, construction and maintenance of storm water facilities.

The Senate returns to voting session Monday at 1 p.m. Gov. Wolf will present his proposed 2018-19 state budget to a joint session of the Legislature on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. You can watch session and the budget address live at PASenateGOP.com.